Cassandra's Challenge Read online

  “Well Victoria, let’s go in and get you situated.”

  “What time is class over?” Cassandra interrupts.

  “1600.” Reese tells her.

  “I’ll see you then Tori.” Cassandra tells her as she crouches down to look into Victoria’s nervous green eyes. Lifting her fist she waits. The nerves leave Tori’s eyes as she gives her Aunt a bump. Turning she follows the educator. Rising Cassandra finds herself under the scrutiny of the Admiral.

  “Admiral.” She nods to him, turning she finds Lucas behind her. “Thanks Lucas. I’m going to head back to quarters.” Turning she leaves before her tears fall.

  The Admiral watches her retreating back having caught just the glimmer of tears, before she blinked them away. Telling him she’s more upset then she’s letting on.

  Lucas looks at the hatch Victoria has just walked through. The two men start to walk down the corridor.

  “I’m going to head to medical, see if I can’t get Bliant to clear me so I can get back on the flight schedule.” Lucas tells the Admiral.

  “Good, let me know what he says.”

  Once secured in her quarters Cassandra begins to strip heading straight for the shower. With the water running she slides down the wall, hugging herself, as she weeps, for her father, her brother and sister-in-law, for all the senseless loss of life on Earth. Why? She has no answers.

  All the fears and doubts she wouldn’t let Victoria see come pouring out as she cries where no one can hear…or care. After what seems a lifetime she leans her head back against the wall. What is she going to do? On Earth she’d been considered extremely intelligent. She’d been nominated for the Magellan Award.

  Graduating Harvard at 15 with three majors she was teaching at 19. Now she feels like a three year old trying to relearn everything. If only there were books she could read. She has a photographic memory and once she reads something, she never forgets it. But unlike some with this skill she could actually apply and connect the information in an extremely fast fashion. Her mother always told her she was the brightest light. Now she doesn’t know what to do.

  “Sitting here in the shower isn’t going to help anything.” She berates herself. Standing she gets out of the shower and dries off. Touching the ring she wears around her neck, she takes it off. Looking at the ancient ring she kisses the stone then hangs it on a hook. It’s time for her to find her place in this new world, to make a life for herself and Victoria.

  Leaving her quarters Cassandra starts to explore this ship called the Retribution that is, at least for now, their home. Wandering on the ship she receives a few looks but is mostly just ignored something she’s not used too. She’s over 6’, on Earth that drew attention. Here she’s short Tori’s the only one she’s seen shorter.

  Finding herself in engineering she’s is amazed at the technology. There are panels and screens everywhere. Different systems controlling speed, navigation, life support, and defenses. Her mind is racing trying to make sense of it all, wanting to know how it all works.

  “Who the fuck are you?!? How’d you get in here?!?” Cassandra turns to find a large, hell they are all large here, blonde man behind her.

  “I’m Cassandra, Cassandra Chamberlain and I walked in through that hatch.” She points to the hatchway. “Who are you?” The blonde man starts to sputter.

  “I’m Chief Engineer Leander Michelakakis! What are you doing here?” The chief grips her arm leading her into what seems to be an office.

  “I’m just looking, I didn’t touch anything.” Cassandra knows how she is about her equipment. “Your technology is above what we had on Earth, do you have some manuals or books I can read on it? What type of lasers are you using? How are you…”

  “Stop!” The Chief looks at her. While her questions are valid, he isn’t allowed to discuss them with her, not without the Admiral’s approval. “Sit.” He tells her pointing to a chair. Walking over to his communications consul he picks up a headset.

  Connecting to the bridge he waits.

  On the bridge the Admiral picks up a headset. “What is it Chief?” When the chief explains the situation the Admiral goes still. “I’m on my way.”

  “Colonel, you have the bridge.” Quinn watches the Admiral leave.

  Going directly to Michelakakis’ office the Admiral enters to find Cassandra and the Chief standing next to screen arguing.

  “Chief!” He slams the door. The Chief immediately turns to the Admiral.

  “Sir!” Cassandra turns a little slower saying nothing.

  “What’s going on here Chief?” The Admiral eyes bore first into him then move to Cassandra.

  “Sir, sorry sir, we were discussing the pros and cons of the carbonite cooling system in relation to a crystal laser.”

  “What!”

  “Sorry sir.”

  “What are you doing in my engineering station?” The Admiral demands of Cassandra.

  Cassandra bites her tongue at the response she wants to give. With a father and brother both having served she knows the rules, and it doesn’t seem that different here.

  “I was looking around the ship, getting my bearing, the hatch was open I came in.” Cassandra decides less was more.

  “Chief?”

  “I found her looking at the laser targeting system, she didn’t touch anything.” He says quickly. “She just started asking questions.”

  “Since when are questions a bad thing?” Cassandra demands.

  “It’s part of our defense system.”

  “I was asking about the laser, not the targeting system,” Her eyes start to blaze into the Admiral’s. “Hell it’s not like I don’t have the clearance….” Suddenly Cassandra stops realizing she doesn’t have any clearance, not here, the fire in her eyes quickly dies. Looking away she says nothing. The room is silent.

  “Admiral,” The Chief risks the Admiral’s fury. “What we were arguing about is the same thing any second year cadet would argue about. Nothing specific to the Retribution.” Leander looks over at Cassandra, she intrigues him. “She has knowledge.”

  The Admiral looks at the Chief. He’s known the man since he was a boy, had served with his father. He trusted his judgment.

  “You have what you need and the time?”

  “Yes, sir.” They both look at Cassandra, who is frowning at them trying to figure out what’s going on.

  “Nothing that’s not common knowledge Chief.”

  “No sir.”

  “Then carry on, keep me informed.” With one last look at Cassandra the Admiral leaves.

  “Would you mind telling me what just happened?”

  The Chief looks at the small woman, wondering if he’d done the right thing. “You’re going to school.” He tells her in his best intimidating voice and is surprised by her reaction.

  “REALLY!!” She gives him a blinding smile. “Where do we start?”

  For the rest of the day the Chief works between his engineering duties and Cassandra, giving her volumes of information, mostly in digital form on his comm center. He’s somewhat surprised at the rate she is digesting the material. When she has a question it’s direct and to the point. Looking at the time he interrupts her.

  “That’s enough for today. I need to get my daughter from class.” Leander shuts down the screen. Cassandra is about to protest when what he says penetrates.

  “Class? What time is it?”

  “1545”

  “Crap! I need to get Tori.” She looks at the Chief. “Can you send this to my comm center? I’d like to work on it later.”

  “Where you at?”

  “G43.” The chief pushes a few buttons and the information is sent.

  “Now I need to go.”

  “Thanks.”

  Leaving engineering Cassandra discovers that the chief’s daughter is in the same class as Victoria. They arrive just as class is getting out. Leander’s daughter runs up into his arms.

  “Papa!” With a quick hug he puts her down and together they walk off.r />
  Cassandra sees Victoria coming out of class and can tells that she’s not happy.

  “Bad day?” Cassandra asks quietly and just gets ‘the look’.

  “Hey! How’d it go?” Lucas comes up all smiles. The faces that turn to him have it fading.

  “I think it’s been a long day, let’s head back to quarters. You think?” Cassandra looks down to Tori, who just nods and takes her Aunt’s hand. “We’ll see you later Lucas.” Turning she leads Victoria away.

  Sitting on the couch Cassandra turns to Victoria. “So what happened?”

  Victoria raises miserable eyes to her. “This teacher…educator, is acting like I’m stupid or something!”

  “Did she give you any home work?” Tori hands her a sheet. “That’s it?”

  “See she thinks I’m stupid!”

  “What were the other kids doing?”

  “They were working on screen.”

  “Okay, how about this, tomorrow we will go in early and I’ll talk to the…educator. See what can be done. Did you make any friends?” Cassandra asks changing the subject.

  “Not really, there is this one girl. She’s my age, her name is Amina. She smiled at me a couple times.”

  “Well that’s a start at least.”

  Walking to engineering the next day, Cassandra’s feeling confident about Tori’s day after talking with educator. She seems honestly interested in helping Tori to adjust to her new setting and is willing to teach her at the same level as the other kids to see where she is in their learning process. The girl called Amina happened to be the Chief’s daughter, when she’d gotten to class she’d come over to talk to Tori. It was a good sign.

  Passing through engineering Cassandra enters the Chief’s office impatient to get started she doesn’t see the Admiral until she literally runs into him. Gripping her arms to keep her from falling Cassandra’s surprised eyes shoot to annoyed ones.

  “Admiral.” She takes a quick step back, his hands releasing her. Moving past her the Admiral leaves engineering.

  That woman is driving him to distraction, the Admiral thinks as he heads to the bridge. Here he is, checking in with the Chief on her progress, personally, when a call would have been enough. But he’d wanted to see her. Her running into him had caught him off guard. He hadn’t touched her since he’d brought her onto the Retribution. It annoyed him that he’d wanted to pull her closer instead of releasing her. Entering the bridge the Admiral pushes thoughts of her aside.

  “So what have you got for me today?” Cassandra turns from the Admiral’s retreating back to the Chief. The Admiral’s obvious annoyance causes her heart to ache for some reason.

  Not sure what he’s just witnessed the Chief looks at Cassandra. For the Admiral to personally come down to see how far they’d gotten yesterday is unusual, for him to not verbally acknowledge her, even more so.

  “You can start up where you stopped yesterday. I’ll be out in engineering.” He rises from his chair.

  “I got through the rest of that last night, but I have some questions.”

  “You finished…the entire file?” The Chief sits back down. There’d been over a thousand pages remaining in that file, detailed pages.

  Cassandra sits down across from him, pushing the Admiral out of her mind. “I have a few questions regarding to the configuration of the Kryer system in relation to the crystal.” As the Chief answers her questions and they discuss differing options the day flies by.

  Victoria is all smiles as she comes out of class that afternoon. Seeing it, some of Cassandra’s concerns ease.

  “Aunt Cassie, this is Amina.” Tori grins at a girl standing next to her. She’s just a little taller than Victoria with long blonde hair and brown eyes.

  “Hi Amina, I’m Cassandra.” She smiles down at the girl.

  “Hi!” Amina voice is sparkly. “Mama! Come meet Cassandra and Victoria.” Cassandra turns as Amina’s mother approaches. While her hair is brown she and Amina share the same eyes.

  “Hello.” The woman says in a polite if somewhat reserved voice. “I’m Javiera Michelakakis.”

  “Cassandra Chamberlain.” Cassandra holds out her hand, the other woman shakes it firmly. So this is the woman her husband had told her about last night. “You’re Chief Michelakakis wife.”

  “Yes.” Is all the woman says. “Come on honey, we need to go.”

  “But mama I want Tori to come with us.” Javiera looks from her daughter to the little girl.

  “Not tonight,” Javiera looks at Cassandra. “Maybe another time?” Cassandra can take a hint.

  “Not a problem, we need to...”

  “Hey!” Lucas interrupts with a big smile on his face. “Oh, hi Javiera. So how was it today?” Lucas asks looking down at Victoria.

  “Good! This is Amina, my new friend.”

  “Well hello Amina.” Lucas turns smiling at her. “Any friend of Victoria’s is a friend of mine.” Amina giggles.

  “So do you ladies have plans?” Lucas looks from Victoria to Cassandra.

  “Looks like we do now,” Cassandra replies. “It was very nice meeting both of you.” She tells the Michelakakis’ as they walk away.

  Walking towards their quarters Cassandra asks. “So what’s got you in such a good mood?”

  “I back on the flight schedule.” Lucas grins.

  “What’s that mean?” Victoria asks.

  “That means I can fly missions again.”

  “But…” Victoria looks at Cassandra.

  Cassandra knows where this is going and quickly opens their hatch. “Let’s go inside.” She gives Lucas a pointed look.

  “Sure.” He gives her a confused look.

  Once the hatch is secured Victoria starts. “You can’t fly again Lucas!”

  “Victoria, that’s what I do.”

  “No!” Running to Cassandra she buries her face in her stomach. Cassandra shoots him an angry look.

  “What!” Lucas looks on helpless.

  “Can you really not figure it out?” She kneels down to console Victoria.

  “Hush now. Victoria, hush.” But she’s inconsolable.

  “Lucas you need to leave. Now!” Confused he leaves, not sure what has just happened.

  “Tori calm down, it’s okay.”

  “No! What if he gets hurt again? We won’t be there to help him!”

  “Shhh….Victoria, you know who the Admiral is right?” Cassandra’s grasping at straws.

  “Yes. He’s Lucas’ dad.”

  “That’s right, do you think he’d let Lucas fly if he wasn’t good at his job?”

  “But he crashed.” Cassandra had known this was coming.

  “I know baby, but he didn’t die did he? He knew what to do to stay alive. You have to trust him to know what he’s doing now. Trust that the Admiral knows what he’s doing.”

  “But what if he dies, Aunt Cassie?”

  “That’s not going to happen.” She prays she isn’t lying. “Trust him, Victoria.” Exhausted even though it wasn’t even 1800 Victoria falls asleep in her aunt’s arms.

  Lucas can’t figure out what just happened. Victoria was having a good day, she’d been all smiles and laughter, had made a new friend. What went wrong? Looking down the corridor he sees his father approaching.

  “Lucas, what’s wrong?” The Admiral knows his son.

  “Are you heading to quarters?”

  “Yes.” Lucas follows him into his ready room.

  “I don’t understand women.” Lucas bursts out.

  The Admiral goes still knowing he’s is talking about Cassandra.

  “No man really does.”

  “I mean, what’s the big deal. I’m back on the flight schedule. That should be a good thing right?”

  “I take it that didn’t go over so well.” The Admiral tries not to visualize Cassandra upset about his son.

  “That’s an understatement. First she’s all happy telling me about her new friend then she’s all upset. Cassie’s trying to calm her down, t
elling me I should be able to figure it out and then orders me to leave.”

  The Admiral stares at his son. “Who is upset?”

  “Victoria! She’s crying and hugging Cassie.” Lucas looks to his father. “What did I do?”

  William turns away, looking at the painting of the setting suns of Carina. Finding he’s relieved that Cassandra isn’t the one his son’s talking about. Piecing together what has happened he turns.

  “She’s scared, Lucas. Victoria’s scared. She’s in a new place, new people. You’re someone she’s come to depend on. You were on Earth, on the Raptor, now here. It makes sense that knowing your flying again would scare her. She’s scared to lose anyone else.”

  Lucas looks at his father. “What do I do? Shit, I don’t want her upset.”

  “You do your job.” The Admiral tells him forcefully. “She has to understand that this is what you do. And you come back. Every time.”

  In the middle of the night Victoria sits up screaming.

  “NO! NO!”

  “Victoria! It’s okay! I’m here!”

  “Fire! Fire!”

  “Shhhh, open your eyes, there’s no fire here. Victoria! Open your eyes!” As the frightened child does she sees her Aunt and the room beyond her.

  “Your safe, Victoria there is no fire.”

  “Aunt Cassie….”

  “Shhh….it’s ok, I’ve got you.” Cassandra rocks the weeping child. Every night it’s been the same, nightmares of being trapped in the fire. But tonight it’s worse. Cassandra knew it is her fear of losing Lucas. When Victoria finally falls back into a fitful sleep Cassandra tries to too, knowing it was going to be a very long night.

  Over the next week, Cassandra and Victoria develop a routine. Tori’s adapting quickly, developing a close friendship with Amina. While she’s still having nightmares they are starting to lessen in severity. Lucas stopping over every couple days to check on them helps.